


Picture Perfect

by K_Lionheart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, James isn't a very active player here, i blame the mferp, kinkade's kind of a dork, like a major dork, slow sexual tension, slowburn of sorts, this is more Rizkade centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 23:31:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17631836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Lionheart/pseuds/K_Lionheart
Summary: It started with a picture. The idea was presented innocently enough. Of course, as the team had come to learn that, with Nadia Rizavi, first impressions often strayed far from the end conclusion. Very far. Just... so many miles away from where one started.





	Picture Perfect

It started with a picture.

The idea was presented innocently enough. Of course, as the team had come to learn that with Nadia Rizavi, first impressions often strayed far from the end conclusion. Very far. Just... so many miles away from where one started. This prior understanding was reason enough for Ryan's eyebrows to furrow with some wariness when she presented the idea. Years of fighting alongside her and dealing with her antics left that sort of expression easily accessible, he supposes. So, while he may not know what to expect, Ryan is at least smart enough to start preparing for it.  
  
"Let's take a picture!" Nadia had said, still panting somewhat. They'd only just concluded a very arduous training session, having gone from sparring to grappling to sparring with short bo-staffs. Ryan's back still stings from the multiple times Rizavi had been able to shock him with her speed and swing him off his feet. How many times his back slapped against the mat were far too many times he cares to count without it hurting his ego a little. Despite the slight embarrassment, however, Ryan can't help but buffet the surge of pride that swells in his chest whenever she does. He's not entirely too sure why, either.

"...Now?" he asks, arching a brow. She nods brightly, taking a swig from her canteen as they rest. Cooldown stretches concluded, Ryan had awaited the usual storm of anecdotes and brilliant scientific deductions Nadia is prone to spew after they were done. She said once that it helps before the day has them split apart, with her jumping deep into the belly of the engineering bay to tackle the week's new projects. She once called him her own personal rubber ducky. He shrugged at that. She already beats on him enough during their workouts to merit the connection, a little verbal storm to help her figure out her puzzles was hardly a thing he couldn't handle. Besides... he kind of likes listening to her ramble. There's something rather charming about the way her eyes light up when she catches the knot in her threads before tearing off into the distance to unravel it some more.  
  
Today is different, it seems. Instead of her usual questions of how his plans will work out just to find an excuse to harp about Todd or Pieter from engineering or dig about any of her projects really, she makes him a proposal. Well... a request. Though, if Ryan Kinkade knows her well enough, the request is more or less a hidden demand. Nadia rarely takes no for an answer.

"Yep," she says, grinning. "Right now!"  
  
He stares at her for a moment, eyebrows furrowing. He glances down at himself as he weighs the possibilities. He wishes he'd have some of Leif's skill in analyzing the statistical possibilities of what her request would entail, but he also knows Leif's answer would be along the lines of, _"I've still yet to map all of the ways Riz's mind works, although,_ _at this point, it's more or less impossible to continue the attempt."_

"Uh, sure," Ryan says. "Let me just go grab my shirt—"  
  
"Ah-ah," Nadia says suddenly, making him pause with the slightest lift of her index finger. "Just as we are."

At this, Ryan's eyebrows rise. It's at that moment that he catches it, the tell-tale gleam of mischief flashing over Nadia's amber brown irises. The momentary surprise passes before he fixes her a flat stare.  
  
"Riz," he says. "What are you planning?"

"Huh?" The innocence that settles over her face is too thick to be believable. Almost comedic even. It doesn't stop Ryan's lips from quirking up with some amusement. "Me? Planning?"

Nadia scoffs, nose wrinkling with an air of affrontedness that genuinely pulls more at Ryan's lips. "I'm simply asking for us to take a picture together, is that so weird?"

"Yeah," Ryan deadpans. "Super weird."

Nadia purses her lips in a pout, but her own smile ruins the image—well, that's not right either. Ryan's come to find that any one of her smiles would be worth capturing and preserving. She was just that photogenic... well... when she doesn't try to be. He'd be tempted to ask her to model for him... in another reality where the simple question wouldn't inflate her ego to the size of the moon. If such a reality existed. Which he doubts very, very much. 

Nadia snorts before grinning at him again. "Come on, let's just take a picture. I'll show you what for in a bit."

Ryan sighs, feigning a profound beleaguered air as he shakes his head.

"You're not going to quit unless I say yes, aren't you?"

Nadia claps her hands, "Yes! He can be taught! Now grab your camera."

It's his turn to smirk. He shrugs.

"Not to burst your bubble or anything but I don't bring my camera  _everywhere_ I go," Ryan says. At her unconvinced expression, he frowns rather seriously. "It can get damaged. I'm still tinkering with it so it's not so fragile. Besides..." he pauses to reach into his pocket and pull out his standard issue Garrison-orange datapad. "We have actual modern technology that can do the job for quick needs such as this."

Nadia doesn't look deterred if anything she seems to consider the option before nodding sagely. "Very well, that will suffice. It actually works out better this way anyway."

_What_ is _she planning?_ He thinks as pulls up the camera app on the translucent screen. For a moment, Ryan doesn't spare her a second glance as he hears her begin to scoot her way closer to him from over the black and gray mats. He simply waits for her to sidle up beside him to pose for whatever reason she wants and get it over with. That is... until he feels her nudge his right arm out of the way. Ryan barely has a moment to glance down inquisitively before he feels Nadia slide her arms around his torso—his very _naked_ torso, can't forget  _that—_ and curl up against his side. 

To paint the image a little clearer; earlier, Nadia had tossed her tank top off while they were sparring, leaving her only in her sports bra and gray joggers. That wasn't new. Nadia isn't what you'd call the modest time, even on a rainy day. He figures when you have a body like the one she has, there was little reason to ever want to hide behind layers of clothing. During their earlier group hang-outs as a team, they'd all opted to avoid Nadia's apartment the most since she likes to hike the temperature way up to eighty degrees just so she can walk around skimpily clad. Eventually, though, much like other habits they'd learn to accept from each other, Nadia bearing skin was something only exposure could fix. Haha. Punny.

During sparring, Nadia in a sports bra was distracting at worse, easily glossed over at best. But like this? Ryan's  _never_ quite felt her this close. Not with her arms wrapped around his chest in what can only be seen as an intimate embrace.

_Good lord, he can feel her **press** up against him._

There aren't better words for what Ryan's brain does besides completely short-circuiting. He barely registers her talking to him, only becoming aware that she is only because he can  _feel_ her voice vibrate from her chest against his ribcage. She shifts, possibly to get comfortable, possibly to press up harder against his chest. All Ryan can do is flounder, attempt to catch a single coherent thought that won't squeak out of his throat the second he gives it a moment to breathe. Suddenly, she moves again, pulling away from him and the abrupt space between their sweat-dried skin is all the air his thoughts need.

"Hold on," he hears her mumble, his mind finally snapping incrementally back into place. Ryan finally looks down at her, blinking, wide-eyed as she scoots in  _closer_ and gathers his right arm to wrap around  _her waist—her very naked waist—_  
  
"There," Nadia says brightly and then her arms were snaking back around his chest. Her right hand, Ryan notes with an internal jolt, slides up from around his ribs to over his pectoral before settling on the cut of his collarbone and trapezius muscle. She wiggles against him then—probably to get comfortable again, possibly to press up harder against him once more—and he notes with a growing heated flush, that her left hand was clinging low to his left side. Her fingers reach around his lower back, teasing the curve of his waist and brushing up against the very sensitive zone of his lower back.

"Alrighty," Nadia says, and the final kicker gets him right in the chest when she leans her head on his shoulder. Wait—no. She's not satisfied with that. Her skull presses too firmly against his collarbone. She shifts again before she's placing her head just under his jaw and— _there._ She's completely clicked into the space against him, holding on but not hanging, embracing but not crushing... it's almost as if she was  _molded just so..._

"Ryan."

Ryan flinches, startled and he makes the egregious mistake of glancing down just as she glances up to look at him. Her eyes are so close, the slender frames of her glasses lightly bump against his jaw. 

"Take the picture," she says, tone teasing the edge of impatience. That's enough to get him to snap out of the shock of having her so close ( _so close, so close, too close_ ) against him, but his abrupt return to this meager flavor of sobriety overwhelms his hand and he ends up fumbling the datapad until it falls and lands on her lap. Sheer instinct alone is what made him move to catch it, but it's not until after he's snatched it back into his far-too tight grip, that he realizes he practically groped her in the attempt.

_Good god, someone please help me._

To his relief, when he presses his thumb on the datapad's screen, the camera app is the first thing to load up. The view of the rest of the empty gym meets their eyes and his thumb's already moving to switch it to self-portrait mode before she has a chance to complain about it. He taps it and he wasn't at all prepared to actually see how they both look right now.

The angle, the lighting, the flush of their skin after such a heated work-out. Nadia clings to him like she would a lover, her eyes taking on a half-lidded stare that sends a hotter flush into his skin and straight down his abdomen. She smiles then, pink lips turning up at the corners in a view so lovely, it kicks him somewhere deep in his chest. Her hair is still somewhat mussed from when they'd grappled on the floor, but instead of attempting to fix it, Nadia smirks wider.

"Perfect," she says as she twists and turns her head under his jaw, probably trying to find the right angle she was looking for. Ryan isn't sure why he isn't just tapping his thumb against the shutter button as quickly as she moves her face to consider. Every angle she presents just adds to the appeal. Going from flirty to downright seductive to cutely playful. Meanwhile he simple stares, dumbstruck and wide-eyed like he'd been caught with his pants down. 

_Shit, not the right imagery._ Ryan sternly throws the idea of the two of them dressing down even further clear out the window. Only his mind betrays him when it boomerang's right back and she twists just enough to hitch her shoulder a little higher. Doing so makes it so the fabric of her bra disappears completely from the shot. It's almost as if they're—

"Ooh, that one!" Nadia coos. "Take it."

Ryan gulps. His thumb shakes as he presses the shutter button. The app lets out a conspicuous synthetic camera clicking sound and the captured image shrinks down to a tiny thumbnail at the bottom of the screen.

"Take a few more," Nadia orders and Ryan obeys her without a word. He only seems competent enough to lift the datapad a bit higher or angling the shot until Nadia's eyes twinkle with approval and he takes another shot. They must've taken at least ten pictures by the time Nadia abruptly perks up and pulls completely away from him.

The loss of her warmth and touch sends Ryan reeling, unconsciously leaning after her until he almost topples over to his side. If she notices this, Nadia doesn't mention anything, though he doubts she does seeing how quickly she snatched the slim orange tech from his hand only to pour over the photos with a manic sort of glee. She cackles to herself as she peruses, unaware completely that Ryan was more or less trying to sit back up without feeling strongly forlorn or wistful.

"Ooh," she says through a wide grin. "They all came out really good! Though, you could stand to relax a little more, Ry."

_—Ry??_

Her thumbs tap away on his datapad as she speaks, suddenly swaying side to side to some perky tune only she can hear in her head. "Oh, this is going to be so rich. I wish I could see his face...!"

Ryan stares after her, still shell-shocked as she taps away. She stops suddenly before spinning around to face him, eyes bright with gratitude.

"Thanks so much, Ryan," Nadia's grin is one hundred bolts of pure and unbridled excitement. Where once he'd squint at it, now he can only behold it with as much rapt attention as possible. He doesn't remember her handing him back his d-pad, only that it was suddenly back in his hand and she was on her feet, dusting her dark gray joggers off. "This was fun! We should definitely meet back up to do this some more. Same time tomorrow?"

She doesn't need to ask him, he thinks blankly. They've been meeting like this for the past month. Ryan nods dumbly anyway, not trusting his voice into saying anything without sounding like a complete fool. Nadia gives him an assertive nod and a wink before she spins on her heels and bounces off toward the gym doors that lead into the locker rooms.

"See you at lunch!" she calls and just like that, the door slides shut after her. Ryan is left staring at the traces she left behind.

Slowly, he glances back down at his d-pad and mindlessly flicks the screen back on. His heart nearly jumps out of his chest completely when he sees that she left one of them—the most seductive looking one, he just  _knows—_ as his lock screen image.

And then, the most mortifying thing of all was when Ryan looks away from the screen only to find a growing tent in his pants. Ryan groans, dropping the datapad to press his hands firmly against his face. 

She's a menace, that much was for sure. Leave it to her to suddenly ambush him like this... 

_Alright, Kinkade, chill._ He tells himself firmly, willing himself to rise— _stand_ up to his feet, albeit somewhat shakily, and focus on the tasks facing him for the rest of the day. Later on, when his phone goes off and other members of the staff ask him why he won't answer, Ryan responds with a simple, " _Hm._ " and ignores it until he's back safe in his room. Simply put, there's no way in heaven, earth, or  _hell_ that he was going to turn his phone on when  _anyone_ can see his lock screen. Eventually, and after a  _very, very_ long day, Ryan manages to trudge back to his dorm room and slump back onto his couch.

He sighs as he drags a hand down over his face.

He'd been unable to stop thinking about her all day. And while that wasn't totally new—his teammates are mostly on the forefront of his mind anyway— _this_ particular angle of thinking was. He's not entirely sure what to do with himself in regards to this latest development. Try as he might, he can't find the right method of attack, not without invoking a wave of goosebumps up his skin and a sudden tightness to grow hotly in his abdomen. This is... he's not sure  _what_ this is. 

Nadia is beautiful, that much he's painstakingly aware of. One of the most gorgeous people he's had the pleasure of getting to know better. But more than that, she's a spitfire. A maverick in every sense of the word. Once upon a time, her energy and swift executions dabbled on the side of recklessness, made her unappealing in some ways. He'd found her loud, often times annoying. But working as a team alongside her, he'd learned to appreciate her better traits. He'd grown to respect her as a comrade. Eventually, he'd grown to care for her as a friend. This... 

This throws a wrench in things.

He's not sure  _what_ to make of this...

Ryan drops his hand on the couch cushion beside him, startling when his hand lands directly over his d-pad. He looks down at the piece of tech, suddenly reproachful but nonetheless... growing incessantly curious.

She asked him to take pictures of them like that... she even made one of them his lock screen. Ryan picks up the datapad gingerly as if any wrong movement would suddenly have the pictures transmitted to the world and revealing him to be some kind of weird pervert whose found himself lusting after his teammate... his very,  _very_ sexy teamma—stop.

He braces himself as he brings the datapad up to his face. Ryan draws in a slow breath and then squeezes his eyes when his thumb presses the onscreen option. The light of the screen bounces off his closed eyelids and Ryan swiftly inputs the code to unlock it. When he opens his eyes, he's relieved to note she hadn't messed with his home screen picture. It remains respectfully the view of a sunset he'd taken from within his MFE during flight drills a few weeks ago. It was his favorite accidental shot.

Ryan's thumb hovers over the icon of his photo archive. He's torn for a moment; caught between nerves and the growing need to see again. It's kind of silly, how psyched up he was getting over just looking over some silly pictures Nadia egged him to take out of nowhere. Right. Yes. Silly. Very silly. Technically, they're his pictures. They're on  _his_ d-pad, and he did push the button. They were, as far as intellectual property goes, just as much his, if not more so, than hers. Ryan has every right in the world to click on those pictures and enjoy them as much as he wants.

He drops the phone on the couch and presses his hands on his face again, groaning louder than before.

"Come  _on,_ man," he digs his fingers hard into his hair. "Why are you freaking out over this?"

Because the whole photoshoot (pfft, if he could even call it that) wasn't planned out? because she surprised him? Because he still  _can't get the way she had pressed up against his skin out of his head no matter how hard he tries?_

Ryan grunts out a muffled curse before looking back at his phone.  _He wants to. He knows he does. He wants to remember her skin on his, the way she'd snaked her arms around him. He wants to feel her slide and press and breathe against his chest, feel the rumbling of her voice on his ribcage, the steady, if still-quick, rhythm of her heartbeat..._ But more than that... he wants to see how her eyes had gazed up at the camera, as if taunting him, teasing him,  _tempting him..._

The orange and gray piece of standard issued Garrison tech is a mere foot away from his face when Ryan presses the onscreen option once more. This time, he's steadily more eager to see the sight of that picture on his lock screen. His chest still squeezes out a gasp though, still surprised by the sight of Nadia's eyes meeting his through time and space, half-lidded and seductive. He marvels at it, his eyes taking in more of her expression, flicking up only to look at his own face once or twice before he's become enraptured by the view of her amber brown eyes and pink lips smiling up at him.

His belly feels warm, muscles too tight. Ryan gulps as he inputs his code again.

His thumb doesn't hesitate to press on the archive icon then.

The first few thumbnails to load are all thirteen— _thirteen pictures—_ variations of him and Nadia pressed up against one another. The little sizes do nothing to supply the memory, but they jolt through him just the same. He taps on the first one and then he's replaying the minutes from early that morning when she was sensually pressed against him, her fingertips gently caressing his skin as he adjusts his grip and squeezes the shutter option. His thumb flicks the image to the next one. 

Each new angle reminds him of something else he'd forgotten that morning. Like, how her breath teased his fingers even from the distance. How her hair would tickle the skin of his shoulder and arm. How her obliques felt firm and sculpted under his hand where she'd draped it. How he'd unconsciously flattened his fingers over her hip and slid against her belly, pinky teasing the slight swirl of her belly button. How their skin felt warm together despite the fact they'd only just finished sweating hard against one another. How much he now realizes he kind of wants to figure out what sliding his hands under her waistband would feel like...

Hear her gasp in his ear instead of giggling. Pull her firmer over against him until the datapad lay forgotten somewhere while he guides her to settle on his lap. Feel that silky soft hair between his fingers as he tugs to angle her chin... find out if her lips taste the same way they look, soft and pink and cherry—

Ryan tears his gaze away from his phone to stare up at the eggshell-colored expanse of his ceiling. His heart is pounding too hard and his pants feel traitorously tight.  

Is he a sick bastard if he's suddenly imagining her like this?

He doesn't really know the answer to that... until something about the pictures stand out to him in a way he hadn't noticed before. Ryan frowns, licking his lips for a moment as he gathers himself again before he glances back at the photo roll. He sits up to flick his thumb through them again, only this time he's more attentive as he tries to find a peculiar detail.

It's upon the third rotation that it suddenly hits him. He realizes, with a shaky swallow, that all of the pictures purposefully look like they're  _both_ very, very much naked.

...Nadia never _did_ tell him what they were all for...

Huh.


End file.
